Opera 9.0 has been released. The new features in this major release include BitTorrent support, content blocking, tab preview, widgets (small desktop applets), and a source viewer, among others. Update:First impressions.

Firefox user like to compare to others in order to improve there browser of choice , your comment means
that your not a firefox user as your stopping them from improving and comparing there browser of choice.

"very kindly"

There is nothing kind from blocking others to disucss and compare things they wish to , its a direct attack on free speech and the freedom to act of others.

"Firefox vs Opera wars"

The Firefox and Opera user does not block the use of each others software , they do not stop there distributor from including both ( on the contrary they encourage diversity because they each think they are the best solution ).

My answer to you and your likeminded friends : Go the f--k away from internet , its built on freedom and on free speech.

How the hell is anything to improve in this world if where to be removed , the guaranteed rights , to compare to other similar solution ?

Sorry if I offended any moron , I think you need to step of discusion sites , you will feel better.

I am a firefox user myself. But you have to hand it to the Opera team for their all inclusive browsing software they make. With an inbuilt email client, news reader, and now widgets to boot and not to speak of their mouse gesures, it is surprising how they are able to restrict the size of the resulting installer to a nominal size.

And even though I am a bit skeptical about their highlighting opera as the fastest web browser in the world, It is indeed a very nice one.

I've always wanted to remain skeptical of Opera on various fronts (no idea why, we all have our biases), but in terms of speed, it really feels unrivaled. It may be that it just starts rendering faster so it feels quicker, but Opera just flies. And if you believe all the reports that it's the most standards-compliant, etc. (and I do), it's a rock-solid browser.

I think it's main barrier to entry is that because it is so customizable, it takes a long time to set up just the way you like. For those of us that use Linux, I think we're fairly used to this sort of thing, but it could be annoying for Joe Average who just wants IE with tabs.

I was expecting another Beta release before the official launch of Opera 9, hopefully this isn't premature and they've squashed all the major bugs.

I seem to remember that the initial releases of Opera 7/8 had some significant problems and it took a few bug fixes before they matured. The new Opera 9 features such as content blocking and per-site preferences are very welcome and the speed seems excellent, I just hope the stability will be equally impressive.

you are right.
The Opera CEO was ranting about how great it would be to get it first, but Apple got it first.

I wanted to see Opera get it just because i like it.
Just because Ive been using it since v5.
I bought the student license @ version 7. It saved me alot of time with researching, etc. the notes feature helped so much.
I even remember getting exited about M2, even if it was text only.
And it still loads way faster than firefox on my celeron 900 in ubuntu 6.06

While I usually love all the features Opera includes in its releases, the bitTorrent client included just blows my..... well, you can imagine.
Some will say simplicity is bliss, but damn it man, not a single option on the bitTorrent client??

I guess even with that THING included, Opera will still be my browser. I will just keep using uTorrent for my torrents, thanks very much...

Now return to World Cup mode and enjoy some beautiful FOOTBALL :-) (you know, the one that you play with your FOOT and a BALL)

It seems that opera currently is the only full fledged super fast browser for linux. Mozilla firefox current situation is of a very heavy, unoptimized, but feature complete product.
On all linux systems I found 3x more performance with opera than with firefox, and at least 10x speedier in view size change (100 to 110 to 120 ...%) with mouse wheel + Ctrl change (everybody can try it to start believe).

Strangely the same is true for opera on solaris 5.11.41 x86 which now comes with firefox 1.5.0.4 (which the later tends to be a little faster than linux)

Same here on FreeBSD.
I use Firefox for most of the stuff (I'm more used to it), but some sites just make it crash + coredump. I use Opera for those, which even in RC-status was more stable than Firefox. Will upgrade later.

Although I like Firefox something's really wrong with all Mozilla based WEB browsers ( Firefox. Mozilla,Seamonkey) on my fresh Fedora Core 5 installation ( Dual Pentium II 933 MHz 512 Mb RAM nVIDIA G-force ).
They all use to crash when accessing www.osnews.con and some other WEB sites 9 ( www.nytimes.com for instanec)so I use Opera to open them. No debug messages no traces about what's causing that behaviour.And all browser are celan , no plugins nor customisations , extensions etc.
It really turned to be true : Opera is way to go on Linux. At least on MY linux systems ( four Linux boxes ).

Hmm.. do you even notice that difference on such a fast cpu? But anyways, I also have the impression that Opera renders most web pages faster than Firefox (on a G4 1.33Ghz with 512Mb ram and a Radeon 9550, yay! for Opera supporting Linux on the powerpc). The main reason I switched to Opera is that the last firefox releases crashed a lot on my computer (and my brother saying all the time I should try it because it really is faster). Anyways, the second beta of Opera 9 crashed a lot on the new Slashdot layout. So, that made me switch back to Galeon, which has been my main browser a long time before Firebird. And I think it's bad that the Galeon developers have chosen to stop development on Galeon and instead develop plugins for Epiphany. I really like Galeon.

Anyways, coming back to Opera, I really like Opera too. It has lots of features which make me wonder why other browsers don't have those. For example the fact that you can set certain settings for certain websites. That's just wonderful for sites where you want to allow popups or sites where you want the user string to be changed to IE, or... On the other hand, I've noticed that Galeon renders fonts more beautifully than Opera. (I tried to make Opera use the Bitstream fonts, but there's still something wrong it seems) On the other hand, Galeon seems to not correctly render certain Unicode characters, while Opera does render them correctly. Maybe there's something wrong with my font configuration. And I also had a problem with Opera not rendering certain pages, while all the other browser did not have any problem with those pages. Well... maybe those problems are solved in the current release.

> I was fowollwing the weeklies and later on the
> dailies of Opera and I fear that it has been
> released too early.

That's just because you've followed the development and all those known issues are bothering you. All software is released with known bugs, so this isn't "too early". You are just so involved in the process that you think so.

I originally used Netscape Navigator 4 and used it until Netscape Navigator 6 came out; I tried the new version and hated it. I tried switching to Internet Explorer and hated that too. I was saved by Opera back then, without it I wouldn't have had a modern browser (I swear I would have stuck with Netscape Navigator 4) and I used Opera until Firefox became stable enough (if it wouldn't have had tabs, I wouldn't have switched) but kept Opera on my computer ever since.

I like that Operas tabs stay there when I close the browser; I get those pages even when I open Opera without being connected to the internet. That feature and its Java support (I find Opera supports java better then Firefox) have earned Opera a permanent place on my hard drive.

Its interesting 23 posts and Its not been mentioned. Has the big E been replaced. Has it become so unimportant amongst todays techies.

Its also interesting that after the strange first post, asking to stop cross comparison of browsers seems most strange almost as is Opera is above criticism. Blind devotion is stupid, but heated discussion is always healthy. I use OSNews to improve my understanding, and expand my knowledge, not blindly idolize a HTML cruncher of all things.

Has licensing also become a non issue for Linux users. Opera has a proprietary license. Its still an issue for me.

I think that, among browser enthusiasts, IE has become unimportant. Most alternative browsers exceed IE in features and security and rendering issues are so old hat that we don't even bother to talk about them. I think that the question browser enthusiasts ask each other is not "Do you use IE?", but "What alternative browser do you use?".

In regards to the first post, I think the poster was trying to avoid a zealotry war. The topic is not on which browser is better but that Opera has released a new version. There have been comparisons posted but they have been mature and objective (for the most part). I thinks that's great and shows the respect that the firefox and opera communities have for each other.

As for the license issue, that's a political decision. All of us are entitled to our own opinions on that matter. However, as an Opera user, I'd like to say thanks for expressing your opinion without being snobby or condescending about it.

Its also interesting that after the strange first post, asking to stop cross comparison of browsers seems most strange almost as is Opera is above criticism.

It's that it normally devolves into a Firefox is better than Opera because it's open source troll fest.

OSS = The Best. Q.E.D.

You can point out things like render times, the fact that Opera introduced several things that we now take for granted in Firefox, the fact that Opera's download is smaller than Firefox and contains functionallity that is avalible in Firefox only after extensions are added, that Opera is much more configurable than Firefox, that Opera hasn't had to patch certain malware vunerabilities that Firefox has had to.

(And this is not to say that I don't use or like Firefox. I think some of the extensions out there for it are amazing and add a great deal of functionality to Firefox that make it like no other browser on earth.)

Nope. Points like that don't matter.

Firefox is better because it's OSS and Opera is bad and teh ebil because they haven't OSS'd their technology and nothing can ever be better than OSS, world without end, Amen. Nanananana I'm not listening to you, I've got my fingers in my ears, neener neener neener, OSS is best because I say so.

It's about as fruitful as trying to have a logical discussion with right-wing Christianists or Islamists, so you can see why the first poster was trying to pre-empt that zealot spewed horse$hit.

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BTW, posted with Opera 8.54, but I've got SeaMonkey open in my taskbar, too, and at home on my Mac, I use both Opera and Firefox, same thing on my Ubuntu machine.

Firefox is better because it's OSS and Opera is bad and teh ebil because they haven't OSS'd their technology and nothing can ever be better than OSS, world without end, Amen. Nanananana I'm not listening to you, I've got my fingers in my ears, neener neener neener, OSS is best because I say so.

It's about as fruitful as trying to have a logical discussion with right-wing Christianists or Islamists, so you can see why the first poster was trying to pre-empt that zealot spewed horse$hit.

I'm surprised at this post. You should be ashamed. I have seen more serious arguments surrounding wii vs
xbox360 vs ps3.

People who are aware of licensing, often choose an inferior product, because of that licensing. What makes the product the sensible choice is that for them and me its too much of a compromise to make.

I know your trying to tie, someone who benefits from open source into some kind of obstinate 14 year but its not the case.

One of my reasons for choosing an open source solution over a proprietary one is trust. The Web browser, is very intrusive its the connection between my private space(my home) and the outside world. As a computer person its a frightening piece of software to use.

"It's about as fruitful as trying to have a logical discussion with right-wing Christianists or Islamists..."

And you can forget about having a logical discussion with a Christian or a Muslim! It was like that time when I was talking to some Mormonists and Catholicists! After spelling, logic was the first thing out the window!

Decaf, brother, decaf... and a dictionary. Also remember, a reason why zealots might bother you is because you're quite possibly zealously against their zeal.

Personally I find the most glaring difference between Firefox and Opera to be the smooth-scroll functionality of both. I'd moan about the memory usage too but I'm pretty complacent in that regard. CPU usage on a Pentium D 820 of mine though hits anywhere between 20%-52% with the smooth-wheel extension tweaked to give 'as good' performance as Opera's default smooth scrolling. Something wrong there I'd have thought, but, YMMV.

On a more on-topic note, congratulations to the Opera team on another fine release. I'm tempted now to actually sort out the Bluecurvesque theme (I made it for v.7x and the jump in interface style of v.8x made me leave off work on it). If you're an Opera user and do use the theme, I apologise for it's 'development' ending so abruptly.

I went and downloaded it for my Mac... pretty sweet. And it is fast. Image loading seems snappier than safari and camino. I saw no glitches and was able to perform some basic tasks on DeviantArt, MySpace, etc.

Looks good. I also like the simplicity of the layout. Just two small rows of tabs/widgets (by default).

[edit] There is one thing I DID notice. Memory usage was up to 63 MB (actual, not virtual) after visiting 5 web sites and opening/closing 7 tabs.

Have you ever sat there and looked at memory consumption of applications in Mac OS X? Pretty scary. I know applications "do a lot more" these days - with all the fancy GUI stuff - but I remember when 63K was a lot of memory for an application on my uVAX, let alone 63MB.

I hate the word zealot, its a anti-linux word used to shut up the "Go Linux Crowd". Its an insult. I actually read the words Winlot the other day and thought this is where discussion has got. The reality is there is a reason to be considered a zealot. People who are zealots found something they liked about the product. I see this as little different from "yeah a new opera release" or "opera is great"

The licence issue is not a political decision for most people. There are people out there who it might be, for me I don't choose propritry software, out of fear. Its not just me, its whole goverments, even microsoft has to show the source to these people today. For otheres its that it works, or they know it will have support in years to come etc etc. Even Microsoft gave up on the Communism slur years ago.

It seems that opera currently is the only full fledged super fast browser for linux.
i guess you haven't heard of konqueror... i use it as my primary browser (on freebsd amd64), but use linux opera (been using 9.0 weeklies for quite a while) for the few sites that require things like flash and contenteditable (or whatever it's called now) or have really buggy html (google groups, and i should start using opera for osnews too, since replying doesn't work right in konqueror)...
on my machine konqueror starts up about three times as fast as opera, but page loading/rendering is about the same speed.

after trying like crazy to figure out how to download a .tar.gz (or preferably .bz2, apparently the checkbox on the download page doesn't work), i ended up at ftp://get.opera.com/pub/opera/linux/900/final/en/i386/static/, where i found that 9.0 final is apparently the build that i've been using for 4 days now (344).

I wasn't skeptical, but I was curious and downloaded it. It certainly appears to be faster than any other browser on my computer. It's a wide margin too. Konqueror and Firefox don't come remotely close.

I watched this topic with an eager eye to see how Firefox shills would try to sneak in their usual snivelling, but guess what, one or two of the little weiners were right, this release really is premature. albertsons.com still will not recognize a login with this thing even though Opera 8 does, in fact I paused typing this to try Firefox, which I do not use, and yes I'm IN. I'll try completing my order with Firefox and see what happens. I don't blame Opera, I'm sure some Microsoft saboteurs have worked their way into their team, why else would Opera fail on sites that Netscape 4.74 still works on. Of course Netscape fails on sites that Arachne and PC GEOS browser "Skipper" can still view so what can you say. The big email providers like yahoo and Lycos seem to specifically break compatibility with Opera at regular intervals, I don't know why nobody else ever mentions it. It's the only reason I moved to Opera 7, and they're going to drag me kicking and screaming into this release too. But as much as I hate the welfare-recipient mentality of the Open Source people I definitely took note when Firefox was able to play online games that won't load under Opera, and now I see the online ordering works better too. It's not going to make me a Firefox zealot, but it does p*ss me off.